Conti Cup : matchday 5 permutations for the remaining quarter finals spots

Here are all the permutations you need to know before tomorrow’s Continental Cup matchday 5

Group 3

Bristol Academy 9 pts 10-5

They are currently in third place in the group and will need to see if they finish as one of the best third placed team.

Yeovil Town 6 pts 4-8 away to Notts County

They need to win by 9 goals or more to overtake Bristol to get into third place

Group 1

Chelsea Ladies 9 pts 12-4 home to London Bees

They need a point to qualify in second place.

Should they loose, they will end up with 9 pts and a goal difference of 8- x and could be overtaken by Reading and/or Millwall if those teams win by a large margin.

Reading Women 6 pts 9-6 away to Watford Ladies

Currently in third place they need to match Millwall’s result to finish third, then will need to finish in the top two third placed teams. With the group 3 team  already on 9 points and a minimum of +5 goal difference, a win is likely to be necessary.

Should Chelsea loose they need to catch up on the Blues’ goal difference while Millwall does not catch up as well.

Millwall Lionesses 6 pts 10-14 home to Arsenal Ladies 

Currently in fourth place they need to win against Arsenal and catch up on Chelsea’s goal difference should Chelsea loose  and should Reading beat Watford on the Royals as well.

Group 2

Doncaster and Sunderland are both on 6 pts and 8-8 on goal difference and will play each other.

The team that loses the game will be eliminated, if it is a draw both side will finish with 7 pts and to have a chance to qualify in that case they will need the Group 1 third place team to finish with 6 pts or with 7 pts and a negative goal difference ie Millwall.

If there is a winner, that team will reach 9 pts matching the Group 3 third placed team and again it will depend on the Group 1 third placed team’s points and goal difference.

Teams qualifying prediction:

Chelsea 98 % chances

Reading 65%

Bristol 65%

Sunderland 40%

Doncaster 30%

Millwall 1% chances

Yeovil 1% chances

FA WSL Continental Cup matchday 4 recap

We now have a clear view on the tournament on the different teams’ status

Teams through to the quarter finals : Arsenal Ladies, Manchester City Women, Liverpool Ladies FC, Notts County Ladies

Teams eliminated from the competiton : London Bees, Watford Ladies, Everton Ladies Durham WFC, Oxford United, Aston Villa Ladies

 

Saturday 29 August

Bristol v Birmingham Group 3 Both side have nine points and a draw would send both side through

Sunday 30 August

Durham v Everton Group 2

With both side already eliminated, this will be a dead rubber in term of the competition.

Manchester City v Liverpool Group 2

It will be a dress rehearsal from that huge posptoned WSL 1 game that might decide where the title will go in a few weeks’ time.

Sunderland v Doncaster group 2

Both side have a chance to go through as one of the best third placed team, it should be a very competitive game

Notts County v Yeovil Group 3

Yeovil are still mathematically in with a chance but would need to win by 10+ goals and see other results go their way.

Oxford v Aston Villa Group 3

Another dead rubber with both side already eliminated

Chelsea v London Bees Group 1

Chelsea need a point to make sure of qualification, expect a lot of their young players to get a game

Millwall v Arsenal Group 1

Millwall like Yeovil need a huge win and good circumstances to qualify, Arsenal are through already and could rest a few players

Watford v Reading Group 1

Reading are likely to go through providing that they get a large win.

Is it time to change the FA WSL Continental Cup format ?

The 2015 tournament has clearly exposed the gap between the WSL 1 and WSL 2 sides. As of today, the WSL 2 sides have taken 0 point off the WSL 1 sides. The gap between the divisions has widened if you compare this season with the previous one. It might be time to change the format for the 2016 season.

First with the introduction of Sheffield in the WSL 2, there will be 19 teams involved in the Cup. An odd number means things will have to change. Here are the different formats that could be used :

a) Keep the same structure, add Sheffield to Group two for geographical reason. Keep the same qualifying format ie top two go through plus the two best third placed team. With the proviso that the third placed team in Group two does not take into account the result of their game against the bottom team of Group two when comparing with the third placed teams from Groups one and three.

b) Keep the group structure but with four groups instead of three. Three groups of five teams and one group of four teams with the top two teams qualifying for the quarter-finals.

c) Go to a knock-out stage straightaway. 13 teams through to the last 16 round with teams ranked 6th to 10th at the end of the FA WSL 2 season in the hat with Sheffield in a preliminary round. The three winners go in the hat for the Round of 16 draw. Seeding could be introduced as well, if the FA wants to protect the “big” teams 😉

As usual the biggest problem will be to integrate all the League and Cup game sinto the international calendar. The good news is there will be no players involved with the Olympics in Rio so the need for a mid season break is non existent.

FA WSL Conti Cup Matchday 4 preview part 2

Liverpool and Notts County are through to the quarter finals following their win last night. Two more sides could go through tonight.

Arsenal v Reading Group 1

Arsenal would go through with a win. It will be interesting to see if Pedro Losa carries on rotating his team and play a very young side like he did against Watford and the Bees. Many of the youngsters are not available due to an England U19 call up though.

Reading are in the mix to go through and might be the only team from WSL 2 to make it to the quarter finals, a point at Arsenal and three at Watford would likely be enough to qualify as one of the ebst third placed team.

Bristol v Oxford Group 3

Bristol need to get three points to stay in the race for the top two places and also the best third placed race. Oxford are already out of the competition.

Everton v Manchester City Group 2

City would go through with a win while Everton are already out of the competition

Doncaster v Durham Group 2

Doncaster have a small chance of qualifying but need to see the other teams results go their way while they win their remaining two games. They also need to  score a lot of goals as their goal difference is bad. Durham are already out of the competition.

Teams already eliminated : London Bees, Watford Ladies, Everton Ladies, Durham Women, Oxford United, Aston Villa

Teams that would qualify with a win : Arsenal, Manchester City

Teams through to the quarter finals : Liverpool, Notts County

Current third placed teams ranking ( top two teams qualify + two best third placed teams)

1. Bristol 6 pts  7-1
2. Reading 6 pts 8-4
3. Sunderland 6 pts 8-8

FA WSL Conti Cup Matchday 4 preview

The Continental Cup Matchday 4 will be played midweek and up to four teams can qualify while six teams are already eliminated from the competition.

Teams already eliminated : London Bees, Watford Ladies, Everton Ladies, Durham Women, Oxford United, Aston Villa

Teams that would qualify with a win : Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Notts County

 

Wed 26 August

Liverpool v Sunderland Group 2

Liverpool could be the first team through to the quarter finals with a win. A draw would see them in good position to go through as one of the top 2 best third placed teams.

Chelsea v Millwall Group 1

Both side have six points and Chelsea are likely to rotate their squad and give a chance to their youngsters. It should make the game competitive

London Bees v Watford Group 1 POSTPONED

Aston Villa v Notts County Group 3

Notts County could go through against a Villa side that is already out of the competition

Birmingham v Yeovil Group 3

Both side have six points and will hope to get a win to stay in the competition as the looser is likely to finish in fourth place or in third place with a chance to be the worse third placed team.

Current third placed teams ranking ( top two teams qualify + two best third placed teams)

1. Bristol 6 pts  7-1
2. Millwall 6 pts 10-8
3. Sunderland 6 pts 8-6

FA WSL 1 Matchday 11 preview

Saturday 22nd of August

Liverpool (6) v Bristol (8)

Both side are desperate for three points, Liverpool to close down the gap with the top two sides and Bristol to overtake Birmingham prior to their decisive head to head game. A point would see Bristol go level with but with a worse goal difference than Blues. Two seasons ago this game was a title decider and last year it gave Liverpool the title again. Things change quickly in the FA WSL.

Sunday 23rd of August.

Birmingham (7) v Sunderland (2)

Last home game for Birmingham, they will know the Bristol score before kick-off. They definitely need the three points to consolidate their seventh place. Sunderland also need the three to keep their title and champions league challenge on track.

Notts County (5) v Man City (4)

City are on a fantastic run and Notts County will have to work really hard to stop them. If County can come back to what made them succesful defensively last season, they might be able to get something from the game.

Arsenal (3) v Chelsea (1)

Another top of the table title decider at Borehamwood live on BT Sport on Sunday evening. The last one ended badly for the Gunners. Should Chelsea win on Sunday they will open a hugefive points  gap with three games to go. Should Arsenal win, they will overtake Chelsea in the table.   As the game is played late on Sunday, the teams will know if they are under more pressure due to the other title contenders results.

FA WSL Conti Cup matchday 3 + postponed games results

Group 1

Watford  2 Millwall 4

Reading 3 London Bees 0

Chelsea 0  Arsenal 2

Watford 0 Chelsea 3

 

1. Arsenal 9 pts +7

2. Reading 6 pts +4

———————

3. Millwall 6 pts +2

4. Chelsea 6 pts +2

5. London Bees 0 pt -7

6. Watford 0 pt -8

 

Group 2

Liverpool 1 Durham 0

Sunderland 1 Man City 3

Everton 2 Doncaster 3

 

1.Man City 9 pts+10

2. Liverpool 9 pts +6

———————–

3. Sunderland 6 pts +2

4. Doncaster 3 pts  -5

5. Everton 0 pt -6

6. Durham 0 pt -7

 

Group 3

Birmingham 3 v Oxford 0

Notts County 1 Bristol 0

Yeovil 3 Aston Villa 1

Oxford 1 Notts County 6

 

1.Notts County 9 pts + 7

2. Birmingham  6 pts +8

————————-

3. Bristol 6 pts +6

4. Yeovil Town 6 pts 0

5. Oxford United 0 pt -9

6. Aston Villa 0 pt -12

 

Best third placed team

1.Bristol  6 pts +6

2. Millwall 6 pts +2

3. Sunderland 3 pts +2

 

Eliminated teams : London Bees, Watford, Everton, Durham, Oxford, Aston Villa

 

The FA WSL1 relegation battle

With four games to go the battle is heating up. The fact that the 14 league format is really short can be summed up by the fact that only three teams are mathematically safe at the moment. Chelsea, Sunderland and Arsenal.

The format is so absurd that Manchester City could be relegated should they loose all their remaining games and Bristol win all theirs. They should be safe by the next game. The same can be said of Notts County.

Liverpool are five and six points clear of the bottom two and would need to loose at least three out of their last five games to enter the relegation battle.

So the battle will be between Birmingham City currently with six and a -10 goal difference and Bristol Academy with five points and a – 18 goals difference.

Birmingham remaining games

Sunderland H 23.08

Bristol A 05.09

Notts County A 27.09

Arsenal A 04.10

Bristol remaining games

Liverpool A 22.08

Birmingham H 05.09

Man City A 27.09

Liverpool H 04.10

Birmingham have the most difficult schedule finishing the season with three away games including the decisive head to head tie at Bristol. if there is a winner on the day, it will be in pole position to stay up.

FA WSL Conti Cup matchday 2 postponed games

There are two games to be played on Wednesday the 19th of August, Watford v Chelsea in Group 1 and Oxford v Notts County in group 3

Watford and Oxford need a win or at least a point to keep their challenge alive as a defeat would mean going out of the competition for them.

Considering the 100% record for WSL 1 side against WSL 2 sides in the Conti Cup, you would expect Notts County to win for sure as they do not seem to rotate their squad much. Emma Hayes has already said she would give her development squad players a game against Watford, so it might be an even game or a potential upset. Chelsea obviously have a decisive League game on Sunday and will rest their important players.

By wednesday evening, we will have a better idea on the teams still in the running to qualify for the quarter finals as at the moment, no teams are out.

The FA WSL 2015 competitions rules

I was looking on the internet for some regulations on the FA WSL Development League Cup 2015/16 as I have found  no information available at the moment. I actually found doing that search that the FA did not upload the FA WSL 2015 rules and regulations  at all, or it is well hidden somewhere of thefa.com or the fawsl.com website.

I have attached the file as some people might be interested in reading them even though the comeptition is nearly over. I got them early in the year as someone kindly emailed them to me. But it seems absurd to me that you have to rely on contacts in the game to get them. I mean if you look at uefa.com and fifa.com all the rules and regulations are available and easy to download.

The FA certainly improved the rules on certain points but still did not act on the problem like technical error by the referee as teams cannot appeal. We certainly saw that England certainly needed that rule in the U19 Euro that led to Leah Williamson retaking a penalty against Norway, so why not do the same in the FA WSL ? One of many mystery from the FA.

Anyway enjoy the read, the file is below :

FA WSL Competition Rules 2015